14th arrest in protest of Calif. officer acquittal

Jan. 19, 2014
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Former Fullerton police Officer Jay Cicinelli was acquitted Jan. 13, 2014, of involuntary manslaughter and assault under color of authority for his role in the July 5, 2011, beating of transient Kelly Thomas. / Mindy Schauer, AP

by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) - Police have arrested a 14th person following a protest against the acquittal of officers in the beating death of a homeless man.

The protest in the Orange County city of Fullerton turned violent Saturday afternoon when a few of the 200 participants attacked a television news camera operator.

Initially, one person was arrested for assault, two for vandalism and 10 for refusing to follow police orders to disperse. Fullerton police Sgt. Jeff Stuart said Sunday a 14th protester was arrested later, after trying to steal from a nearby supermarket. More arrests are possible.

The protesters objected to a verdict earlier last Monday that absolved two Fullerton officers in the 2011 death of Kelly Thomas, whom police had kneed and jolted with an electric stun gun.

Stuart said most of the protesters were peaceful, but some took over intersections, blocked streets and vandalized business.

Video broadcast by KCBS-TV showed someone whose face was covered by a bandanna striking a camerawoman. She fled into her news van, and her crew called 911 when a group surrounded the vehicle, Stuart said.

The attack prompted police to declare the protest an unlawful assembly. Officers in riot gear came to disperse the crowd, and arrested at least 10 for not complying, Stuart said.olice arrested the assault suspect and two others for scrawling an obscenity and an anarchist symbol on police property.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Thomas' father thanked the demonstrators at a rally in front of the Fullerton Police Department. He said that without their protests in the summer of 2011, his son's case might not have ended up a trial at all.

"If you were here for 2011, for the protests," Ron Thomas said, "give yourself a hand. You are the people, you made this happen."

Kelly Thomas, 37, died five days after a violent confrontation with six officers in July 2011. A surveillance camera captured him screaming for his father and begging for air as the police kneed him, jolted him with an electric stun gun and used the blunt end to strike him around the face and head.

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